Events and tips before Steemfest

I am getting on the plane heading to Amsterdam in a couple of hours and thought I’d share some information and tips for other people heading there early.

Meetup.

Whenever I travel somewhere these days I like to mix up exploring the city with useful conferences and events. I always check out Meetup.com - I think that’s the best way to find interesting things going on in a new city.

I am an entrepreneur and software developer and my interest is mainly in business, entrepreneurship and IT meetups, but there is a lot of other stuff going on as well. I am most likely going to these:

• Appsterdam Lunch Event - A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence (Wednesday)
• Next Round: PHP vs. Python - VueJS vs AngularJS (Wednesday)
• Arnhem Bitcoin City Steemfest Special (Thursday)

The last one seems to be kind of a Steem pre-party and something I’d think would be fun for all Steemers, even those who are not as much into IT and crypto as me 😃 Maybe if the guys arranging it could tell more? I didn’t find any posts here on Steemit about it but I might have missed it - let me know and I'll link to it.

By Christiaan Roosink

Couchsurfing.

Couchsurfing is really popular and if you don’t know what it is, definitely check it out here.
In addition to being able to spend the night for free on someones couch you can also find a number of cool meetups there. That could be everything from language exchange meetups, cooking classes and free dance lessons.

They also have a beta feature in their app now that lets you see meetups and informal events going on in the area around you. It's a great way too meet cool people and experience things you wouldn't have otherwise.

Google maps.

I think it’s awesome to use Google maps while travelling. Whenever I’m planning a trip I go over all the stuff I would like to see and mark them with stars on my map.

Then I just check it every now and then when I’m walking around and check out whatever is nearby. I don’t really like making detailed plans and I really enjoy just walking around exploring new cities.

Other tips.

• Use the searchbar on top of Steemit and search for "Amsterdam" or "Steemfest" - there are lots of great articles on Steemit about what to do in Amsterdam.
• The Calendar from IAmAmsterdam has a lots of events that are happening in November.
• For concerts I'd suggest Eventful - Red Hot Chili Peppers play on November 8. and 9.

Say hi.

If you’re coming in early as well do say hi and let me know if you found other cool events during the days leading up to the main conference. If you’d like to join for the trip Amsterdam - Arnheim on Thursday that’s cool too, I will take the train I think.

Best way to get in touch is probably to dm me at @oyvkva on Twitter, not sure how much I am able to check the Steem Chat while I’m travelling. Commenting and following here works too 😃

See you all at Steemfest!